6 Fun Games That Teach Patience to Your Child

Patience is definitely a virtue that everyone should possess to some extent. In the entire process of personality development, one can only hope to be taught this high valued skill as early as possible. Although there are many factors that contribute to the development of this virtue, parenting technique and guidance are some of the strongest influences. For example, a rough childhood, lack or total absence of parental guidance can lead to having little or no patience. If you want to teach your child patience, it’s best to start early on, or as soon they are ready to start learning.

As a parent, you’ll notice that there are many situations in which you can implement some of the techniques for teaching patience to your child. Here are some of the best exercises that you can show to your youngling in order for them to strengthen this skill.

1. Waiting Game

This is a simple one yet extremely effective when a child requires to be tough patience. As you notice that your youngling becoming more playful, you might want to test their patience from time to time. This is important as it will indicate how determined they are. While you’re away, if you kid starts making mess, playing with every toy available in the room, rearranging every item in the room, it’s time to teach them a lesson about patience.

Pin them to one place and ask them to wait for you. The goal is not to move a muscle until you arrive, which should be shortly. After they’ve waited for you, and you arrive with their favorite candy, they’ll want to start doing this more often and ultimately learn patience.

2. Simon Says

Simon Says is a classic among kids games and verbal exercises. It’s great for working in small as well as large groups. If your kid never heard about this game in the kindergarten or on TV it’s time to introduce them to it. Before you start make sure that the rules are clear. The person that takes the role of Simon issues commands, and no one else. When Simon says jump everyone should jump at the exact moment, not before not after. If you’re working with your only child, you can do this together. If not, let them mingle with their siblings and friends as they jump around, crouch, or perform whatever Simon says.

It’s a fun game that allows you to teach patience while having fun with your loved ones. If you ever wondered how to teach patience to children without losing nerves on your own, these exercises might give you a clue. The important thing about Simon Says game is that kids will learn patience while anticipating the next action to perform.

Be sure to stretch the time between each command. The longer they wait the harder it is to endure but that’s exactly how they’ll learn to be patient. By putting them in the situation in which patience is important, they’ll have no other alternatives but to actually stay put and wait for instructions.

3. Spoon & Egg

This activity can be fun and exciting for the entire family, and you’ll still teach the youngest members some patience. Anyone can participate and the rules are simple. Each contestant gets a spoon and an egg. The goal is to place the end of the spoon in the mouth and hold it as you place the egg on the spoon and transport it from point A to point B. The catch is to do this without using hands, and whoever uses gets disqualified for that turn.

There are many games that teach patience but none are as interesting as this one. You kid will try to beat you or their siblings in this game as it is competitive. But as they start getting antsy for staying behind, they’ll want to cheat and adjust the egg with hands. Which is of course prohibited and gets players disqualified. The whole process of carrying an egg in a spoon, including being disqualified and waiting for their next turn will teach your kid how to be patient and why it’s not advised to cheat.

4. Card Matching

Card matching is another great patience but also memory game. If you kid hasn’t learned patience yet now’s the time to do so. Get a deck of nice cards, preferably those that match the style of your kid’s favorite universe, characters, etc. Once you have the deck show them how to play with them. Next to making card castles and other things, cards are great for playing memory games. Teach your kid how to place a group of cards in that order that they don’t see the front side.

Reveal each card once, and then give them a chance to guess which card matches with its pair. You’ll be amazed how they won’t jump to conclusions when picking the matching card that easily. They’ll want to make sure that they got it right and this is exactly how they’ll learn to be patient. By thinking about their actions before making them, they learn how to stop making sudden moves.

5. Jigsaw Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles aren’t for everyone, yet kids love them. Not everyone has the patience for completing a puzzle containing 2000 pieces or more. But kids see this as a game, and they do love their playtime. So if you notice that your kid needs to be thought patience, it’s time to get their favorite jigsaw puzzle.

Try to get the one featuring characters from their favorite movie, cartoon, or protagonists from their favorite book. This will increase their desire to finish the puzzle and reduce the chances of wanting to quit. If they aren’t doing so well in the beginning be sure to help them a bit and spend some quality time with you loved one in the process.

6. A Game of Silence

This particular game teaches your youngling not to interrupt while someone is having a conversation or stating something important. They need to learn this as soon as possible. So if you notice that you kid isn’t too attentive, has little patience to wait until someone finishes speaking it’s time to play a game of silence.

Simply try to make it interesting for them to keep quiet for as long as possible. In order to do that you need to participate, or find them a partner so they can both play the game of silence. The goal here is to teach them patience of course. And if they start to like it you won’t have behavioral problems with them anymore.

Conclusion

When teaching how to be patient, it’s important to show what happens in the absence of this virtue. Try to show them all the angles in order to make them feel sympathetic with those that are beings interrupted in their sentence, or in any other way. This will make them understand why it’s rude and why it’s important that they don’t practice this kind of behavior.

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